Sustainability
Thormac journey to sustainability has involved adopting practices that minimize negative environmental and social impacts while maximizing economic benefits.
Our milestones on our journey
- Collaborating with customers to reduce waste in the production of plastic components.
- Movement from hydraulic injection moulding machines towards Electric injection moulding machines, which have much greater efficiency.
- Adopting more environmentally friendly materials like Bioplastic compounds and, in some cases, recycled polymer materials.
- Developing product using 80% single-sourced recycled plastic.
- 40% reduction in electricity usage using Smart power machines.
- 10% reduction in water usage using closed loop chilling systems.
- Reducing process waste by 20%
- Replacing light fittings with more sustainable LED lights in 2019.
Comparing the plastic injection moulding process
| Plastic Processing | Specific Energy Usage |
|---|---|
| Type | kWh/kg |
| Injection Moulding | 3.118 |
| Pipe and Profile Extrusion | 1.506 |
| Film Extrusion | 1.346 |
| Thermoforming | 6.179 |
| Rototional Moulding | 5.828 |
| Compression Moulding | 3.168 |
| Film Extrusion | 1.346 |
| Fibre Extrusion | 0.850 |
| Compounding | 0.631 |
| Overall Average | 2.811 |
Working In partnership with our customers
- Alu metal box converted. to PP GF40%.
- Part weighs 33% less.
- Reduced Noise Pollution.
- Easier to recycle.
- Formerly metal tripod covert to PA6 GF20% FR.
- Part weights 23grms.
- 27 sec cycle-time.
- Easier to recycle
While turnover goes up our electricity use comes down
| Year | Total Units kWh | Reduction Kwh | Total kg CO2 | Total CO2 Tonne | Reduction CO2 | Total kg Carbon | Total Carbon Tonne | Reduction Carbon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 1,143,791 | 0% | 544,444 | 544 | 0% | 148,485 | 148 | 0% |
| 16 | 1,234,178 | 8% | 502,311 | 502 | 8% | 136,994 | 137 | 7% |
| 17 | 1,211,683 | 6% | 437,417 | 437 | 20% | 119,296 | 119 | 20% |
| 18 | 1,382,810 | 21% | 470,156 | 470 | 14% | 128,224 | 128 | 14% |
| 19 | 1,024,390 | -11% | 348,293 | 348 | 36% | 94,989 | 95 | 36% |
| 20 | 903,356 | -21% | 307,141 | 307 | 44% | 83,766 | 84 | 44% |
| 21 | 993,622 | -13% | 298,087 | 298 | 45% | 81,296 | 81 | 45% |
| 22 | 930,478 | -19% | 317,052 | 317 | 42% | 86,469 | 86 | 42% |
| 23 | 948,885 | -17% | 222,039 | 222 | 59% | 60,556 | 60 | 59% |
| 24 | 899,291 | -22% | 210,434 | 210 | 62% | 57,391 | 57 | 62% |
| According to the EPA (USA) 1 person emits 15 Tons of CO2 per annum |
Working in partnership with Clean Ireland
None of our waste goes to landfill, it is either recovered or recycled.
| Waste Stream | Jan-24 | Feb-24 | Mar-24 | Apr-24 | May-24 | Jun-24 | Jul-24 | Aug-24 | Sep-24 | Oct-24 | Nov-24 | Dec-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recycling | 2.58% | 4.69% | 18.83% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 2.84% | 0.57% | 2.93% | 3.45% | 2.46% | 10.73% | 1.92% |
| Recovery | 97.42% | 95.31% | 81.17% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 97.16% | 99.43% | 97.07% | 96.55% | 97.54% | 89.27% | 98.08% |
| Landfill | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% |